Planned Confederate monument rally peaceful, but small

The GULF Coast Patriot Network 'Rally To Be United As One' got together for the support of the confederate monument Saturday morning at the Caddo Parish Courthouse.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)Buy Photo

About 20 Confederate monument supporters and a fluctuating crowd of onlookers showed up during the first few hours of planned Confederate monument rallies in downtown Shreveport on Saturday.

Yellow sawhorse barriers lined the courthouse grounds on all sides as some supporters lapped the sidewalks waving their Confederate flags. A main group congregated on the Texas side of the courthouse for much of the time.

They were confined to sidewalks because Rex Dukes, founder of the Gulf Coast Patriot Network, refused to sign an agreement clearing the parish of all legal responsibility for damages and expenses as a result of the rally.

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Rex Dukes, founder of the Gulf Coast Patriot Network, during the 'Rally To Be United As One' event Saturday morning at the Caddo Parish Courthouse.
(Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

Dukes and the Gulf Coast Patriot Network issued a nationwide call for supporters to come to the rally. From the events' Facebook page:

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Shreveport police at the GULF Coast Patriot Network 'Rally To Be United As One' Saturday morning at the Caddo Parish Courthouse.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

"This is a call out to all southern States to all citizen's of the Confederate States of America to come to Shreveport La to stand United as one and to all U.S. citizens that love history and wants it to be preserved and cherished to stand with us to protect our monuments and our southern hertige (sic)."

"More is supposed to be coming tomorrow," Dukes said of the crowd's size.

Shreveport Police handled security as well as members of the Louisiana Patriot Militia. Ken Calhoun, a member of the militia, did not give a total head count on the number of militiamen present for the rally.

Jesus Eguia, a monument supporter, came to the rally carrying around the U.S. flag and wearing an American flag shirt. Eguia said he came to the United States from Mexico when he was 9.

"I came to stand up for our freedoms," he said. "We cannot change the past ... I stand for it to stay where it was at," he said. "I bet you I've picked a lot more cotton than a lot of these colored people here."

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People waving confederate flags walk by the confederate monument during the GULF Coast Patriot Network 'Rally To Be United As One' event Saturday morning at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times )

Eguia said he was there to stand for the future and a better country.

"We've got to band together and change and make it better," he said. "We can't judge people by their color ... that's what Martin Luther King said."

Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan had contacted members of the Gulf Coast Patriot Network about the Shreveport rallies, Dukes said in an earlier interview with The Times. A KKK-affiliated group from the Monroe area expressed interest, he said.

The Dixie Rangers of the Ku Klux Klan used to have a Monroe chapter about eight years ago, said Lee Shoebroek, imperial wizard of the Dixie Rangers, in an earlier interview with The Times. The Livingston Parish-based group has no plans for the Shreveport rallies, Shoebroek said.

The Dixie Brigade Knights from Franklinton have no organized plan for the Shreveport rallies, but a few individual members may be there, said Justin Davis, imperial wizard, in an earlier interview with The Times.

It appeared there were no members of the Klan present.

The occasional agitator or passerby yelled things at the monument supports periodically throughout the day. Dukes had previously expressed concern that members of Black Lives Matter or Antifa would show up.

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Chris Lyon, right, with a Soviet Union flag as Jesus Eguia, a monument supporter, stands with an American flag.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times )

Chris Lyon, a Shreveport resident, brought an old Soviet Union flag to the rally, waving it alongside the monuments' supporters.

"I came out here to make a joke," Lyon said."(Both) are failed states. I just thought it would be fun to have people look at me weird and ask questions."

Morio DeMello, a songwriter and substitute teacher for Caddo Parish Schools, stood on a nearby corner and played loud music from his speakers for a short time before Shreveport police officers on horseback asked him to turn it off.

The loud music was his way of show his displeasure with Confederate monuments and the flag, he said. He compared Confederate symbols in Shreveport to Hitler statues being placed in a Jewish community.

"When I see that flag, it reminds me that (my) ancestors' used to pick (your) ancestors' cotton," DeMello said. "I remember stories of my mother telling me that she seen with her own eyes ... she said she used to see the actual Ku Klux Klan in Shreveport. She seen them come in a church one time and slap a preacher and they were flying that same flag."

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Barbara Maxey holds a sign to protest the GULF Coast Patriot Network 'Rally To Be United As One' event Saturday morning at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times )